Vigan -- A Growth Experience

Last weekend, a brother Jesuit and I went to Vigan for Vocations Promotions work in the region. It was my second time to visit the old city, perhaps the only city in the country which preserved its Spanish era structures. We really had a great time there, from visiting religious houses to a stroll at the heritage walk area.

But what struck me the most was the vigor and enthusiasm that my brother Jesuit, Sch. Ambrosio Flores, S.J. demonstrated right before my very eyes. He was energetic enough to distribute flyers and vocation promotions materials to basically all young men in the vicinity who were totally strangers to us! I did not have the nerve to do what he did, so I ask that I just wait for him in the Cathedral and at the same time to pray for more vocations to the Church and to the Society.

While I was in the Cathedral, Bros' dynamic attitude towards vocations promotions really moved me. I was so lucky to be with a brother who possesses the dynamism and energy that a Jesuit should have... all for the greater glory of God... at all circumstances... at all costs! At that instance I shrunk in my incapacity to do what Bros just did.

The Vigan experience was not just an apostolic endeavor for me. It was personally a growth experience, thanks to Bros. It was an opportunity to once again check myself, my very desire to follow Jesus as a Jesuit religious. To ask myself whether I am really ready to do ALL things for God's greater glory, whether easier ones or the difficult. And in the generosity of God, he gives me living examples to emulate. Thank you Bros for showing me the true spirit of a Vocation Promoter, for showing me how to be a true son of Ignatius... a Jesuit in spirit and in deed.


With Bros' dynamism, we were able to "entice" ten young men to think about the possibility of a religious calling in the Society of Jesus. Let us pray for them.